Former High-Ranking Scientology Official Accuses Florida Lawyers and Judges Of Accepting Gifts As Part of Effort to Drop Criminal Charges In Death of Church Member

The Church of Scientology is the focus of new charges of potentially criminal wrongdoing in the death of a church member. A federal lawsuit details allegations that the Church spent millions to influence judges and lawyers to scuttle homicide allegations in the death of Lisa McPherson in 1995. The allegations of corrupt practices are directed at known judges and lawyers, including the lawyer for the coroner in the investigation into the death. The former number two of the Church says that he believes the Church spent at least $30 million to get criminal charges dropped.

McPherson died after being involved in a minor traffic accident. McPherson reportedly indicated at the time of the accident that she needed psychiatric help — a major taboo in the Church. Instead, she was allegedly taken to the Fort Harrison hotel for care by Scientologists. Seventeen days later she was pronounced dead. The family sued and demanded a criminal investigation. That led to a criminal charge against the Church for second degree felony for practicing medicine without a license as well as abuse of a disabled adult. However, the charges were dropped later after Pinellas Medical Examiner Joan Wood changed the cause of death from unknown to accidental.

Then Marty Rathbun came forward with his disturbing allegations of corruption. Rathbun is the former second in command of Scientology. He claims that the Church spent millions to influence judges and politicians. He specifically details gifts to the Medical Examiner’s attorney, Jeff Goodis, to get him to help secure the change in the coroner’s cause of death. He also alleges ex parte communications with judges by Church lawyer and former prosecutor Lee Fugate.

Jeff Goodis denies the charges. The lawsuit also names judges such as Judge Robert Beach.

The alleged denial of psychiatric treatment is notable. Scientologists reject psychiatric treatment as a continuation of the opposition of L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology’s founder. Hubbard, who critics charge had psychiatric problems, lashed out at psychiatrists as involving in a global conspiracy. He wrote:

Hubbard came to believe that psychiatrists were behind a worldwide conspiracy to attack Scientology and create a “world government” run by psychiatrists on behalf of the USSR:

Our enemies are less than twelve men. They are members of the Bank of England and other higher financial circles. They own and control newspaper chains and they, oddly enough, run all the mental health groups in the world that had sprung up […]. Their apparent programme was to use mental health, which is to say psychiatric electric shock and pre-frontal lobotomy, to remove from their path any political dissenters […]. These fellows have gotten nearly every government in the world to owe them considerable quantities of money through various chicaneries and they control, of course, income tax, government finance — [Harold] Wilson, for instance, the current Premier of England, is totally involved with these fellows and talks about nothing else actually.

Putting aside such matters, there remains the serious allegations involving lawyers like Goodis. If the account of gifts is false, there would seem ample grounds for a defamation lawsuit since this is a per se category of defamation involving unethical professional conduct. The same is true for these judges. Rathbun says that a personal meeting was arranged between Goodis and Scientology head David Miscavige and that they used actor John Travolta in the effort to woo those involved in the investigation. Medical examiner Joan Wood is expressly accused of yielding to pressure through a relative in the testimony below of Rathbun. While in court statements are privileged under common law defamation, Rathbun appears to have given interviews which would not be privileged.

In the meantime, the lawsuit, if not dismissed, would allow for discovery that could prove problematic for the Church.

I never quite got a connection between religion and science. I know that some scientists who worked on the A Bomb believed in the Holy Ghost. But to have a religion purport to be based on science or to invoke the very word science is a bit odd. Take the founder Leroy Ron Hubbard and look at his background in the mental hospital before he floundered. He was beholden to a notion that science was religion and religion was science. The Earth is Flat. Prove it with religion. John Revolta lives in Hollywood, prove it with a map and science. They go together. L. Ron went to heaven on the same premise that Steve Jobs did and has, like Steve, tried to take his fortune with him to the promised land. The science of bribery takes a new dimension under all of the foregoing.

The difference between a mormon and a scientologist is the like the difference between a moron and a scatologist. There are many scatologists among us who never invoked God or Science and yet they continue to steal, bribe and inherit the earth. If you Google : Scatology you will see what I mean, jelly bean. Dogs believe in scatologists when they dont have leashes. Think about it. Dumb schmucks in Hollywood need such mindfaults to fall back upon.

The $cientologists have a long history of abuse of process aginst critics that borders on barratry. Now, it seems they can be on the receiving end of a legal process that might do them some significan structural harm.

Gene and Mike are both right on the money. A RICO prosecution would be delicious. Prophet and profit, they are not homonyms. Their difference is as much as programme and program

Most religions have the same characteristics: put up a belief that can not be falsified, demand acceptance to become one of a group, do as you are told in spite of common sense, and give us all you have and find others who will believe.
Scientology’s main “thing”: You will be “cleared” by us, we’re just not saying when. Meanwhile, be anxious, obedient and bring in more suckers.

Thus Spake: it’s Xenu. Different spelling, but your sense of it is correct.

DS: It doesn’t border on barratry, it is. Scientology uses any and every technique to silence critics, from “dirtying the victim” to copyright (they win on that one) to death threats. SLAPP is standard. While RICO would be schadenfreude, a deserved one, I think RICO is so abused it should go away.

BD: “I never quite got a connection between religion and science.” Using your A-Bomb reference, without the Holy Ghost reference (so many people were employed for the Manhattan Project I would expect it given it was the 1940s) we have Oppenheimer’s famous reference to Shiva through “I am become (Hindus have some wonderful verb tenses) Death, Destroyer of worlds.” The high-level physicists have a tendency to go Deist, whether metaphor or not, but not Theist. Einstein made reference and I’ve read lately that Hawking has done the same, though I think that was misreporting.

As for the Mormon bashing, just the other side of the 1960 coin. Really, look at religion anthropologically, it’ll keep your adrenal glands quiescent. It’s good for your health.

“prophets”, it’s “prophets”. I enjoyed the comment Mike; it rhymes. Can’t place/find the meter but it’s a good start on a poem. Maybe. Just following links and definitions (Blame Darren, AY and insomnia!) it would appear that “prophet” and “profit” are homophonic heterographs: they sound alike (a Homophone), are spelled differently (a Hetrograph), and have different meanings.

LottaKatz wrote:“it would appear that “prophet” and “profit” are homophonic heterographs: they sound alike (a Homophone), are spelled differently (a Hetrograph), and have different meanings”
~+~
Yeah, I too got sucked in to trying to find the exact definition for the relation of those two words, gave up since I had to get back to work.

Your title is incorrect. Rathbun never alleged that any judges accepted gifts.

He made one allegation involving a gift against the Medical Examiner’s attorney (Goodis). However, Goodis has stated that “the church helped him locate Super Bowl tickets in January 2003 and that Miscavige also sent him a pair of cuff links. But he said both incidents occurred after he ended his representation of Wood in 2000.”

The lawyer that Rathbun accused of having ex parte communications with judges (Fugate) has filed a sworn affidavit stating he never told Rathbun he had such communications.

This lawsuit was filed by Ken Dandar, an unethical lawyer who, at the time, was days away from being sanctioned a large sum of money for attorneys’ fees due to his breach of the McPherson confidential settlement agreement years ago. This lawsuit was his last ditch effort to garner sympathy from the media and the public.

Dandar contacted Rathbun (who had made these allegations on his blog a year prior in August 2011), and examined him under oath for the sole purpose of delaying the state court proceedings in which he will be sanctioned up to 1M.

One day before filing Rathbun’s examination in federal court, Dandar e-mailed attorneys Pope and Potter and threatened to file the examination unless they agreed to void the 2004 settlement agreement. (See e-mail below.)

Gentlemen:

Tomorrow at 9:30 AM I will be filing my Reply. Also, I will be filing an examination under oath of Marty Rathbun. Bob told me on Tuesday that there is no chance of settling this. I ask you once again to consider my offer to settle by agreeing to have
1. a state court order entered voiding the CSA,
2. dismissing the state and federal cases with prejudice, each party bearing their own costs and attorney fees.

I will proceed to timely file my Reply if I do not receive an acceptance of this very generous offer by 9AM, tomorrow.